As fans of the so bad its good 1997 original, we were skeptical of this remake starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black.

Were they just here to make fun of the original? Was this just a tired retread? Did they give away all the best parts in the trailer?

We got our answers to these questions. Check out our review to find out too.

https://CupOfTea.podbean.com/e/anaconda-2025/

If you’d rather read our thoughts, check out the transcript of our review here…

Tim: Hello, and welcome to Cup of Tea Reviews. My name is Tim, and I’m joined, as always, by Michael. 

Michael: Thanks for having me. 

Tim: Thank you for joining me. You know, Michael, we watch movies to have a good time, but so many of them are duds. 

Michael: That’s right, Tim. We waste our time so that you don’t have to. 

Tim: That’s right, Michael, and this week the movie is Anaconda.

It is a 2025 action adventure horror comedy starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Michael, please give us your hot take. 

Michael: Tim, this movie was absolutely my cup of tea. We hit it at just the right time, and this was just an absolute joyride. I loved it. What about you? 

Tim: This movie was my cup of tea. It was wild. It was crazy.

I laughed a lot, and I had a really good time, and it didn’t dip its toes too far into the nostalgia for it to be alienating. 

Michael: So Tim, what’s it about? 

Tim: A group of childhood friends journey to the Amazon to remake the 1997 film Anaconda, only to be attacked by a real giant killer snake. Michael, where would you like to start with this one?

Michael: I, I want to talk about what you said in your upfront, which is this movie did an awesome job walking the line between remaking the original movie but also doing something different. Like, when we booted it up, I’m like, “Ah, are they just, like, shot for shot remaking this? Like, what is this?” It was like it, it, it’s this incredible homage to the original without being, like, the original again.

Uh, yet there were elements of the original woven in. It was fascinating. They did a really wonderful job of just bringing something new to life while still recognizing the original source material. 

Tim: Honestly, I was really skeptical when I saw the trailers and the poster for this. I thought, “Great, they’re gonna make fun of the movie.

It’s just gonna be like we’re just gonna dunk on the, the 1997 film.” They didn’t, though. They told a real original story with these characters. These guys are… Honestly, we talked about it when we were watching it, that this movie was kind of made for us. It’s two guys, like, in their 30s- Yeah … or 40s who are, like, trying to, like, make something of their lives and getting really nostalgic about their past.

And I was like, “Oh, this, this hits. This hits home for me.” And then they got to the jungle, and the movie just went off the rails in a really fun way. Uh, and I just, I had a great time. I was surprised throughout. 

Michael: I totally felt seen by the movie, as you said, Tim. But additionally, I think the cast, like, you could tell they’re just having an awesome time.

Like, Paul Rudd, Jack Black, like, they are just, like, clearly fans of the original movie. Uh, and you can just feel their passion, and, like, they are having fun. And because they’re having fun, it’s so much easier as an audience member to get in and have a good time. 

Tim: It’s, it’s so contagious. Um, and especially the sequence that happens in the middle of the movie.

There’s four or five scenes that are strung together that get crazier and crazier and crazier as they go. I don’t want to spoil anything, but right in the middle of the movie, we had to pause it because we were just on the floor laughing, which was absolutely wild. Uh, I think there’s part of it in the trailer, the pig on the head scene.

Unbelievable. And by the time you get to that point, 50 crazy things have happened. Right. It was just a tidal wave of insanity, and I loved it. I had a great time with it. Michael, it’s not all good though. What didn’t work for you? 

Michael: For me, knowing how absurd this is and what, like a thrill ride it is, there were some moments where they really leaned into the drama elements of the film.

It was fine, but like it just didn’t feel super necessary to me. Like, again, you can have those moments, but we don’t need to linger in them. And there were definitely some moments, especially in the midpoint of the film, where it felt like we were just kind of lingering in these dramatic moments versus moving on to the next set piece.

Tim: I, I felt like they, they shortchanged some of those moments. So like if there was more of a payoff, then maybe it would have felt better. Yeah. But, but I just- Hmm … like, I just don’t think that it, that it really paid off very well. 

Michael: That’s a good point, Tim. I actually wasn’t thinking about the payoff. I was actually kind of like I didn’t even want a payoff.

I was just like, “Move it along. Get me to something funny.” But you’re right. Like I think they actually… That’s maybe a better way to think about it. They kind of split the difference. Like- Yeah … it wasn’t enough to get me a payoff, and but it was too much to where it kind of pulled me out. Yeah. Like they were in that weird middle zone- Mm-hmm

where they couldn’t decide if they were going to go all in on that or not. 

Tim: My only other drawback or call out is, is the end of the film has a big finale, and it’s a very big finale. A- and it’s, I think, too much of a finale. And I don’t want to spoil anything. I don’t want to give anything away. But I just feel like by the time we get to that point, I’m, I’m done.

I’m like exhausted. The, this, this big ending just sort of pulled me out a little bit, and I kind of wish that we had gone for, you know, just tone it down two or three notches. Like that’s all we need. We didn’t need to be that wild with 

Michael: it. I feel the finale also kind of shifted a little bit from being comedic to being more action movie based.

Yeah, mm-hmm. Which I think is a good homage to the original. Again, like I see what they’re doing. Yeah. But to your point, like by the time I get there, like so much crazy stuff has happened that then to have another tone shift where now we’re moving into an action movie, it ju- it reminds me of like movies like Airplane that we’ve seen where it’s like, oh my gosh, by the time you get to the end, you’re like, “Okay, we just need to pause and take a break before act three I think because- Yeah, right

this is just too much.” 

Tim: Yeah. Uh, Michael, when should somebody watch the film? 

Michael: This is awesome. Like I really enjoyed this. Like we obviously listed a couple things that we didn’t like, but that is not to say don’t watch this movie. Like I, I loved this. I think it was super fun. I think if you’ve seen the original and you’re a fan of it, like you have to watch this.

Like you’re going to love it. So what about you? 

Tim: Oh, absolutely. I really had a great time with it. I thought it was a lot of fun. Very surprising, very kinetic, and yeah, there are a couple drawbacks, but honestly, for the amount of fun we had, I’ll tolerate a few drawbacks. 

Michael: We’ve seen worse stuff. 

Tim: We’ve seen way worse stuff.

Thank you guys so much for watching. This has been Cup of Tea Reviews.